The use of robotic arms has been readily adopted across diverse industries because they increase efficiency in the production process and reduce labor costs. The widespread use of robotic arms is due largely to their versatility of performing different tasks. This versatility is accomplished by the use of end of arm tools (EOATs) that are specifically designed to perform specialized tasks. For example, robotic arms are used to perform complex operations that require the highest degree of accuracy and precision, such as the manufacturing of circuit boards or computer chips. In other industries, robotic arms have replaced manual labor for tasks that were traditionally performed manually by humans such as packing bottles into shipper cases, painting automobiles on the assembly line, and many other similar tasks. All these tasks can be performed by end of arm tools that have been specifically designed to perform a task such as painting cars on the assembly line, soldering transistors onto circuit boards, and loading bottles into shipper cases.
Despite the many uses of robotic arms, there is still a need to provide an end of arm tool that is capable of handling fragile items that require special handling such as eggs that are packaged in containers (e.g., egg cartons) which are then placed in shipper cases. Heretofore, packing cartons of eggs into shipper cases has remained a manual task.